Minister Jung Eun-kyeong of the Ministry of Health and Welfare said on the 15th that she would "work with the medical community to improve prescribing practices and prepare management measures" amid concerns about indiscriminate prescriptions and misuse of anti-obesity drugs such as Wegovy and mounjaro.
The Minister said at the National Assembly's Health and Welfare Committee audit that "Wegovy is being misused in clinical settings," adding, "Although there are difficulties in management at present, we will strengthen the management system for abused medicines in connection with the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety."
Wegovy (ingredient name semaglutide), developed by the Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk, can be prescribed to adult obese patients with a BMI (body mass index, calculated as weight divided by height squared) of 30 or higher, and to obese patients with obesity-related diseases whose initial BMI is 27 or higher.
However, in clinical settings, some non-patient users for cosmetic purposes are increasingly receiving prescriptions for Wegovy. According to lawmaker Kim Nam-hee of the Democratic Party of Korea, Wegovy was prescribed 69 times to children under 12 and 194 times to pregnant women from October last year to August this year.
Kim said, "Obesity treatment injections are being prescribed even to children and pregnant women, and Wegovy is being overused to the extent that a person with a normal BMI of 20 can get a prescription in five minutes," adding, "The prescribing criteria for Wegovy are useless in the field, and isn't the Ministry of Health and Welfare effectively leaving it unattended?"
Kim added, "Thousands of prescriptions are being issued even at hospitals unrelated to obesity treatment, such as psychiatry, ophthalmology, and dentistry," and "side effects such as acute pancreatitis, cholelithiasis, and hypoglycemia have been reported, and the resulting medical costs are worsening the National Health Insurance finances."
In response, the Minister said, "We will operate a consultative body so that the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety's product approval standards can be followed in clinical settings," adding, "We will prepare measures to strengthen management so that the overuse of anti-obesity drugs does not threaten public health."